I want forever.
Maeve finally wears herself out chasing after a butterfly, collapsing against Zola's side with a dramatic sigh. Zola strokes her curls absently, watching the water, and I shift closer.
"I need to tell you something." My voice comes out rougher than intended.
She looks at me, those amber eyes catching the fading sunlight. "Okay."
"I've wanted forever with you for a long time." The words feel monumental, reshaping everything around them. "Since before the accident. Since before everything went wrong. I've known for nine years—maybe even longer, maybe since I saw you and couldn't walk away—that you're it for me. That there's never going to be anyone else."
Her breath catches but she doesn't interrupt, just watches me with an intensity that makes my pulse kick up.
I reach into my pocket, fingers closing around the small velvet box. Pull it out slowly and watch her eyes go wide with recognition—she knows what this is, what it means.
"I bought this ring nine years ago." I flip the box open and her hand flies to her mouth. "It was actually the day you got hit. I was planning to propose. Take you somewhere nice, get down on one knee, do it properly."
The alexandrite catches the light, shifting from deep green to purple-red, exactly like I remembered. Exactly like her—changeable, striking, impossible to look away from.
"Then everything fell apart." My throat's tight but I push through. "And you left. And I kept it anyway because some part of me refused to believe I'd lost you for good. Kept hoping maybe someday you'd come back. That I'd get another chance."
"Declan—" Her voice breaks on my name.
"You did come back." I slide off the blanket, dropping to one knee on the grass beside it. "And I'm not wasting another second. I love you. I love Maeve. I want to marry you and builda life together and give that kid more siblings if you want them or just spoil her rotten if you don't. I want everything, Zola. With you. Forever."
I hold the ring up between us, heart hammering against my ribs.
"Will you marry me?"
For a second she just stares, tears streaming down her face, and my chest constricts with fear that maybe I've pushed too fast, asked for too much?—
Then she launches herself at me with a shriek that startles Maeve into wide-eyed silence.
"Yes!" She's sobbing and laughing at the same time, arms around my neck, nearly knocking me over. "Yes, yes, of course yes!"
I catch her against me, relief flooding through my veins like adrenaline. She pulls back enough to look at me and I slide the ring onto her finger with shaking hands. It fits perfectly—it always did, I made sure of that nine years ago.
She holds her hand up, watching the stone change colors in the dying light, and makes a sound that's half laugh, half sob.
"You kept it all this time."
"I'd have kept it forever." I cup her face, wiping away tears with my thumbs. "Because you're forever. You've always been forever."
She kisses me then, fierce and desperate and full of promise, and I taste salt from her tears and sweetness from the strawberries and everything I've been wanting for nine years.
Maeve makes an indignant sound—probably feeling left out—and we break apart laughing. Zola scoops her up and Maeve immediately grabs at the ring on her finger, trying to put it in her mouth.
"No, baby, that's mama's." Zola redirects her hand. "That stays on mama's finger."
"Mama!" Maeve agrees enthusiastically, bouncing in Zola's arms.
I watch them together and something slots into place in my chest—this is what I've been fighting for, what I've been waiting for. This exact moment where the three of us are together and happy and building something real.
"I've also been thinking." I run my hand through my hair, suddenly nervous again. "About the house."
Zola looks at me, Maeve still squirming in her arms. "What about it?"
"I think we should move back in. All three of us." I gesture vaguely toward where I know the house sits, a few miles from here. "The apartment above the bookstore is fine for now but Maeve's getting bigger. She needs more space. A yard to play in. Her own room."
"A real home." Zola's voice is soft.
